European Union finance ministers agreed late Sunday on more than just an €85 billion bailout for Ireland. They also turned the currency union into a de-facto debt union by choosing to turn May's €750 billion rescue fund into a permanent feature of the euro zone. What's more, they promised that no sovereign creditor would face a haircut on their debt holdings until 2013, and that's at the very earliest....

....here is what the EU has done: In the name of combating speculation against the debt of euro-zone members, the EU has now insured all those speculators against loss for three years at least. Meanwhile, in creating a permanent crisis-management mechanism, the EU has succeeded only in making permanent crisis more likely.